England lost three early wickets as they made a conservative start to their must-win World Cup clash with South Africa at Kensington Oval.

Defeat would send Michael Vaughan’s team crashing out of the competition while victory would put them in the box seat for a semi-final place.

Vaughan gambled on facing the new ball in early morning conditions upon winning the toss and England laboured to 53 for three in the 17th over.

Ian Bell, Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen perished as South Africa grabbed the early initiative in the ‘quarter-final’ showdown. Veteran Shaun Pollock and new-ball partner Charl Langeveldt sent down testing spells first up as the outside edge was passed on numerous occasions.

It was not until the third over that England had runs on the board while it took Vaughan 20 balls to get off the mark.

Warwickshire’s Bell, who clipped a delivery off Langeveldt through midwicket for four to ease the shackles, eventually lost patience as he spiralled a top-edged pull off the same bowler to square-leg, where Ashwell Prince clung on to the catch despite his vision being impaired by the sun.

Vaughan was fortunate later in the same over, the eighth of the innings, when his attempted pull flew over wicketkeeper Mark Boucher’s head for four.

Two more conventional boundaries from Vaughan in the 10th over, a rasping pull and a tuck through midwicket, lifted the scoring rate and when Andrew Strauss hauled a short-of-a-length ball from Langeveldt into the stands at long leg, an unchanged England appeared to have ridden through their tough period.

But Andre Nel struck with only his second delivery, earning a leg before decision against Vaughan, who fell across his stumps to one which angled in, to bring England dangerman Kevin Pietersen to the crease.

Pietersen squared up whilst trying to whip Andre Nel’s delivery to leg but only found mid-on and Graeme Smith, who dived forward a metre to take a fine, low catch.